Abbas mulls early elections
The Palestinian president is seeking to end a political impasse with Hamas.
Tayseer Khaled, a member of the PLO’s executive committee, said, “President Abbas stressed that there would be no dialogue with Hamas. He said the dialogue ended and that Hamas bears the responsibility for the failure of the talks”.
Saeed Seyam, who is also a senior Hamas leader, escaped unharmed, the ministry said. A Palestinian security patrol later arrested four men suspected of carrying out the shooting.
Khaled Abu Hilal, an interior ministry spokesman, called the shooting “a result of the latest inflammatory statements against the government”.
Haniya warning
On Saturday, Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, rejected Abbas’s plan to hold early elections, saying it would accentuate “crisis and tensions”.
“I think that the invitation to carry out the elections in this way is disrespectful to the Palestinian people,” Haniya said in an interview with Iranian television.
“I believe that this will increase the crisis and the tensions and will have a negative impact,” said the head of the Hamas-led government, who is visiting Iran as part of his first foreign trip as prime minister.
Khalil al-Hiyya, the chief of the Hamas bloc of lawmakers, told AFP in Gaza City earlier that “the goal of this decision is to kick Hamas out of the Palestinian political scene”.
“This decision is not in the national interest and will only make the situation more tense.”
“We had an intense discussion on various options, and from what we heard, he is leaning towards going back to the people with a call for early presidential and legislative elections,” Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian aide, said.
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But an official close to Abbas said the election would probably be held in four or five months.
Calling a new election would be risky for Abbas as he would be putting his own job on the line and there are no guarantees that Fatah would improve its standing in a new vote.
The movement, which dominated Palestinian politics for four decades, remains divided and tarnished by corruption.